A television journalist in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, wants a generic term for “house of worship” to use in place of the word church in news reports. Synagogue, temple, sanctuary, and mosque are all too specific. What’s a fitting...
Christina from Phoenix, Arizona, asks whether chai tea is redundant, since chai can mean tea in other languages. In U.S. English, chai has narrowed to mean solely a spiced tea, so chai tea works as a specific kind of tea rather than a mistake, no...
How much humor and personality can you pack into a 140-character update? A lot, it turns out. Martha and Grant talk about funny Twitter feeds. Also this week, the origins of skosh and “can’t hold a candle,” why dragonflies are...
A firefighter is annoyed by his boss’s use of the term pre-plan. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Pre-Plan” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hi, this is Dave. How are you? Hello, Dave. Hi, Dave. Doing well. Hi...
OMG, text messaging! It’s destroying the English language, corrupting young minds, turning us into illiterates. It’s probably shrinking the ozone layer, too. Or is it? In his new book, Txting: The Gr8 Db8, David Crystal offers a...
The French phrase au jus means with sauce, which is why it drives some diners to distraction when a menu lists beef with “au jus sauce.” A Wisconsin listener calls to say this phrase sets her teeth on edge. The hosts order up an answer...